Nikki Foley and Hillary Smith dance in the silent disco at Pridefest in Town Point Park on Saturday, June 18, 2016. The couple said the Orlando attack made them come out this year when they otherwise might have skipped the event.

A drag queen soaks up the sun at PrideFest in Town Point Park in Norfolk on Saturday, June 18, 2016. The Orlando attack was on the minds of many festival goers, who said that violence had spurred them to come out and express their support for the LGBT community.

Nikki Foley and Hillary Smith dance in the silent disco at Pridefest in Town Point Park on Saturday, June 18, 2016. The couple said the Orlando attack made them come out this year when they otherwise might have skipped the event.

A drag queen soaks up the sun at PrideFest in Town Point Park in Norfolk on Saturday, June 18, 2016. The Orlando attack was on the minds of many festival goers, who said that violence had spurred them to come out and express their support for the LGBT community.

Producers apparently loved Martha Wash’s voice; it was the rest of her they dismissed.

If you were around in 1990, dancing in clubs or at prom or maybe lip-syncing into a hair brush in your bedroom to Black Box or C&C Music Factory, then you know her sound.

More than a decade or so before, if you were a fan of disco legend Sylvester or the gospel-charged novelty duo the Weather Girls, then Wash’s powerful, ringing soprano already was familiar. But despite being one of the most distinctive vocalists in urban pop, Wash spent a great deal of her career fighting for proper credit she initially didn’t receive for multiplatinum hits. In the videos constantly aired on MTV and BET back then, slinky models with legs for days lip-synced her vocals. Wash, a full-figured woman all of her life, was nowhere to be seen.

She sued record labels and producers responsible for making millions off her voice. The cases were settled out of court. Nearly 30 years later, Wash, now slimmer and looking radiant, is in more control of her image and sound than ever before.

“I’ve always been the kind of artist where I just do what I do,” says Wash, who will headline this year’s PrideFest in Norfolk along with the Village People. “Everybody has a lane, and you kinda stay in your lane as far as what you’re good at and you just keep it moving.”

Wash’s straight-no-chaser attitude has been there from the beginning, she says. And it continues to serve the 63-year-old San Francisco native who oversees her own record label, Purple Rose, and tours regularly, averaging 100 shows a year. Her survival in the pop world, which she entered in the 1970s when she and singer Izora Armstead signed on as background singers for Sylvester, has been a testament to her talent and tenacity.

Back then, Wash and Armstead were known as Two Tons o’ Fun, ample-figured singers with volcanic vocals who gave gospel heft to Sylvester’s stratospheric falsetto. They were something of a novelty – playing up sassy, irreverent personas onstage when they weren’t adding vocals to numerous sessions for other artists. Wash and Armstead were renamed the Weather Girls around 1982, when the duo’s single, “It’s Raining Men,” rocketed up the charts that year. The song has since become a camp classic, beloved for decades mostly in gay club culture where Wash has long been an icon.

“This business is very, very hard on people,” says Wash, calling from her New York City home. “But if you have the fortitude and the perseverance, you can stay in this business and work. It depends on how far you want to go. It seems like everybody now wants to be a star but don’t want to go through the hard work that it takes. Right now, you can be a YouTube star; that’s how people are being found. That’s fine. But after a while, if you don’t have the fortitude to stay in and work on it, you’ll be a star for 15 minutes and that’s about it.”

After the Weather Girls disbanded, Wash became an in-demand session singer at the dawn of the ’90s. Her vocals on smashes like “Everybody, Everybody” by Black Box and “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C&C Music Factory were originally recorded as demos for other singers. But on the official releases, Wash’s vocals still boomed, soared and spiraled, turning those songs into some of the most memorable of the decade. After her lawsuits were settled in late 1990, Wash received proper credit and compensation for the hits that had helped define the era. RCA, Black Box’s label that Wash sued, offered her a contract in 1991. Two years later, a self-titled album appeared, featuring “Carry On,” which topped Billboard’s dance chart.

When RCA didn’t renew her contract, Wash continued to tour and started Purple Rose about five years ago. Recently, she teamed with fellow disco survivors Linda Clifford and Evelyn “Champagne” King for “The First Ladies of Disco,” a super-trio that has been touring mostly overseas. Their first single, “Show Some Love,” a surging pop-rock number with an inspirational message about inclusion, was released two years ago.

Touring with the First Ladies of Disco or on her own, Wash’s most receptive audience over the years has been predominantly gay. She says she’s seen positive changes there since her days in San Francisco with Sylvester, who died in 1988 from complication of AIDS.

“It’s grown more. I don’t wanna say it’s accepted, but people have become more used to gay pride, which is a good thing,” Wash says. “We are all citizens and everybody should be treated equally whereas in the past that community has always been thought of as less than. That’s always been wrong. Whether you agree with how they live or who they say they are, it doesn’t matter. It’s liberty and justice for all, not just a few.”

Although her fans expect the thunderous dance hits from her, Wash says she’s ready to push herself in other artistic directions.

“Everybody knows me for the dance music. I can do that kind of stuff standing on my head,” Wash says. “But it’s about branching out and doing other forms of music I love, like standards and big band music, and I still want to do a gospel album. I can afford to do that now.”

Doing anything other than singing is not an option at this point.

“I guess I don’t have good sense,” Wash says, chuckling. “That’s what’s kept me going. I thought about quitting a few times, but I wondered, ‘What am I gonna do?’ I haven’t come up with that answer yet. There have been some years where there hasn’t been much work. It’s feast or famine. But God has been good to me, and I’m still here.

Introduction

Martha Wash and the Village People, the headliners for this year's PrideFest, have long been campy icons of gay club culture. Both acts garnered fame in the 1970s and '80s with bombastic tunes like "It's Raining Men" and "YMCA" that have become classics still heard these days in many films and at countless drag shows and wedding receptions.

PrideFest, an annual summer celebration of Hampton Roads' gay communities, offers an array festivities, from family-friendly games to dance parties, all with an inclusive vibe for everyone. Wash and the Village People as headliners make sense: Although they're more celebrated by a traditionally marginalized community, the vibrancy and often liberating lyrics found in their music, particularly Wash's, exclude no one.

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Welcome to the discussion.

No name-calling, personal insults or threats. No attacks based on
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it's screaming. Stay on topic and under 1,500 characters. No
profanity or vulgarity. Stay G- or PG-rated.